According to the local newspaper in Allentown, ABE is looking to attract flights to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. First ABE would have to build a federal inspection station, which would cost around $5 Million. This is a problem for the airport due to a lack of funds (they recently settled a $16 Million claim in court)

So what does everyone think? Do you think any airline would actually do an ABE-CUN flight? I could see G4 doing this flight once they get their A319's? I know this is a long shot, but would DL do this? I know they do a few point to point out of CUN.

Then lastly, I could see F9 doing this as a charter for Apple Vacations?

I would think either G4 with a319s or F9 for Apple Vacations would be your best bets. Maybe twice a week to CUN and MEX and twice a week to SJU. I don't think we will see the DOminican Republic any time soon, considering the proximity of NYC and the connections to PHL. But then again, the same could be said about MEX, CUN, and SJU.

Maybe CUN, but MEX will never happen out of ABE. PHL can't even support MEX service. Its been started and failed quickly in the past. If MEX doesn't work out of an international gateway serving 6 million people more or less (plus the myriad connection opportunities) it will never work from a more or less isolated ABE.

The ABE airport authority is really reaching on this one. They want all sorts of international leisure destinations and they don't even have an FIS facility! Not to mention PHL and EWR are both within 1.5 hours, with JFK a bit further. I think their customers can get along fine connecting through PHL considering its barely a 20 minute flight and they have 5 or so flights a day to PHL.

I think Big Foot is blurry, Its not the photographers fault. Theres a large out of focus monster roaming the countryside

Being a resident one county over from ABE, I'm wondering if this isn't as much for leisure/vacation traffic as it is actual O&D. The populations of Berks and Lehigh Counties have swelled with hispanics (the Reading City Schools district is 74% hispanic according to schooldigger.com) in recent years and there could be plenty of folks looking to travel "home" to Mexico on these routes.

Although the problem of having PHL and EWR/NYC so close does remain, I don't see this as pie-in-the-sky dreaming...there could legitimately be traffic looking to go from this area to points in Mexico/DM/etc.

Very interesting developments, though without the FIS it seems like a long-shot.

Quoting gregarious119 (Reply 5):Being a resident one county over from ABE, I'm wondering if this isn't as much for leisure/vacation traffic as it is actual O&D. The populations of Berks and Lehigh Counties have swelled with hispanics (the Reading City Schools district is 74% hispanic according to schooldigger.com) in recent years and there could be plenty of folks looking to travel "home" to Mexico on these routes.

I'm not sure what percent of that population regularly travels back to Mexico, but those that do go as VFR would be widely dispersed through Mexico and Latin America. A flight or two to Mexican cities wouldn't help the vast majority of them out. IAH would. The article the OP linked to pretty specifically explained this is targeted toward leisure travel.

There is overlap between Apple and Funjet, because the two are now pooling some flights. They either operate it as or full on charter or make bulk purchases of seats on scheduled flights. But even if the airline lists it as a scheduled flight it - the airline - may only have 30 or 40 seats allocated to it. If the airline actually initiates the flight, it will have more seats to sell, but there are very few flights that don't have some packager participation.

Apple's new BDL-PUJ is flown by Frontier but is Apple all-charter (as it stands now). The other Apple (Frontier) flights to PUJ are also scheduled Frontier and the airline is allocated blocks of seats to sell in its own right.

Quoting mariner (Reply 7):Just about every LCC route to Mexico (Airtran/Southwest, Frontier and Sun Country) is "in conjunction" with a vacation packager.

Here are the Southwest/Airtran lists at MKE and DTW, for example, for Apple Vacations:

Might want to point out, for example, the DTW to Mexico flights operated by FL metal are not included in the regular schedule sold by WN/FL. Those are just outright charters and have nothing to do with the regularly scheduled service to Mexico/Latin America.

Quoting ouboy79 (Reply 8):Might want to point out, for example, the DTW to Mexico flights operated by FL metal are not included in the regular schedule sold by WN/FL. Those are just outright charters and have nothing to do with the regularly scheduled service to Mexico/Latin America.

Just making the point that some are all charters and some - at other places - are a combination of charter and scheduled. Here's Airtran/Southwest/Apple at AUS, for example:

Quoting wagz (Reply 2):PHL can't even support MEX service. Its been started and failed quickly in the past.

Agree. MEX is not realistic from ABE.

About PHL, did US fly PHL-MEX a long time ago with a stop somewhere along the way (I dunno why, but I want to say MSY). I remember that in 2003, I read on US' inflight magazine that US was going to launch PHL-MEX nonstop, but that never happened. It'd be nice to have service to PHL. Did MX ever serve PHL from MEX nonstop or direct?

I think this is a bad idea. The money they need to spend building the facilities could be more money they pump into a domestic route and help give it even more time to develop. I think they just need to keep service and the number of flights up not add some international destination. I just dont see this solving ABE problems more than a domestic route that is more frequent and successful. Frontier seems to be willing to try anything right now why not use that money to try to get even more florida or something.

Quoting slcdeltarumd11 (Reply 11): Frontier seems to be willing to try anything right now why not use that money to try to get even more florida or something.

Florida would make most sense (equivalent number of destinations and seats as ACY has to its Florida destinations). Then domestic westbound service beyond Chicago and Detroit: likely Houston, Dallas or Denver would be more realistic than Mexico, Dominican Republic and Jamaica.